Choose Your Own Adventure (Authors Edition)

[kalichan]

Item: Lord Peter Wimsey.

Sadly Dorothy Sayers wrote Lord Peter mysteries of a finite number, and then moved onto religious plays, and Dante of all things...[and I say, wasn't one infernal poet enough??? I ask you. When the world could have been blessed with tales of Lady Peter (nee Miss Harriet Deborah Vane) and the Wimsey sproglets in WWII to say

Comments

[thaddeusfavour]

You've seen the LPW/TW crossover? I'd never read the LPW stuff, but I liked the crossover. :P

[kalichan]

I've not seen it! Where is it?

(There is nothing thought of that has not already been thunk before...)

Wait...I've seen Sam's x-over with all the butlers/valets/batmans?(batmen?). Is that what you're referring to?

[thaddeusfavour]

Nope. I recced it at TWH. I think you'll like it. The author uses a style similar to Sayer's (I gather) and it works nicely.

http://community.livejournal.com/torchwood_house/24319.html

All The Young Soldiers

[kalichan]

Dude, awesome. *is excited*

[valancy_joy]

If one were exceptionally stunted by their rural upbringing, and hadn't, you know, actually read any Dorothy Sayers ... where would you suggest one start?

Please advise by return post, after, certainly, taking some time to recover from the shock caused by the knowledge that there are still such uninformed readers out there...

[ophymirage]

the answer to your question is a regrettably subjective one; there are ardent Wimsey fanciers who resent the intrusion of one Harriet Vane as distraction from some rather fine (early) straight-up detective novels. They would undoubtedly recommend that you begin with "Whose Body?", the earliest (and really, honestly, the best) pre-Vane.

However, it is undeniably true that most of the best of Sayers' mysteries are post-Vane. If you want to read them in approximate chronological order for the romance, start with Strong Poison, then Have His Carcase, Murder Must Advertise, Gaudy Night, and Busman's Honeymoon. (I tend to skip Nine Tailors partly because Harriet's not involved, and partly because it's just an odd mystery, and not her best.)

Were I forced to choose a single favorite, it would probably be Murder Must Advertise. It's mostly Wimsey (Harriet makes brief appearances at best) and Sayers's rich and complex use of language is at her most amazing and witty.

[valancy_joy]

Being both ardent, and fond of a linear chronology I will have to take this sensible advice, well, under advisement.

But huge thanks for pointing the way towards a series I can't believe I haven't explored! It all sounds just so delightfully spiffy.

[kalichan]

Clearly our charming colloquy is turning out to be both decorative and useful. I am enchanted to be of service, to say nothing of being in your debt for a lovely afternoon spent with Mrs. Gillmore and her protege Miss Maida Westabrook, of Boston.

Dorothy Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries can be divided into two parts -- pre-Harriet and post-Harriet. While there is something to be said for reading them in chronological order, the writing gets substantially better the more you move along. If you don't insist on reading in order -- I myself read the Harriet Vane ones first, fell madly in love, and then went back and read the previous ones as sort of prequels.

So, the first one of the Harriet Vane ones is Strong Poison.
If you want to read completely in order, the first one proper is Whose Body.

There's a pretty excellent summation here -- Poison for Two in the Library: A Lord Peter Wimsey Overview -- which also explains the books in brief (scroll down.)

[semyaza]

If it were me, I'd read Margery Allingham, which is just what I did when I finished the Wimsey books at the age of 13 and had nowhere else to go. I never found an even remotely adequate substitute for Heyer though. She remains unique to this day.

[kalichan]

I have... never heard of Margery Allingham... but a quick google tells me I am missing out! Glory be.

Where would you suggest I start?

[semyaza]

I've noticed that many people who love Sayers have missed Allingham so I proselytise at every opportunity. I began at the beginning (The Crime at Black Dudley) but if you can't find it you could try any of the ones written in the 30s. Campion matures -- or the author matures -- a great deal in the course of the series, so it's worth following his career chronologically. And since he also has a significant other, it probably makes sense to catch the beginning of the relationship rather than work back to it. You might prefer the later books, of course. :D

[kalichan]

I forsee a trip to Interlibrary Loan in my not-so-distant future.

[ophymirage]

Anyone up for a Tennant-Wimsey remake????

Never do. David's much too hyper and not nearly horsey enough. :D

I waited for *years* for someone to figure out that Peter Davison would make a PERFECT Wimsey, on the other hand.

Edward Petherbridge is delightful as Wimsey, but agree that Gaudy Night was dreadful (but really, how can one collapse 500+ pages into 90 minutes well?)

LOVE Harriet Walter as Harriet Vane.

ETA: Sayers led me directly into Wodehouse, Waugh, and also Graham Greene. :) One might also suggest E.M. Forster for delicate romance..

[kalichan]

I am amused that our answers to valancy_joy coincided so admirably.

Never do. David's much too hyper and not nearly horsey enough
It would be a re-imagining of the character certainly, as I also cannot imagine DT with suitably primrose locks. I do still stand by the fact that there is something Wimsey-esque about the Doctor, and the Tenth Doctor at that. Peter Davison is a pretty charming idea, however.

I loved Edward Petheridge to bits, and Harriet Walter as well, lack of deep husky voice notwithstanding. But the writers! After having adapted the first two so beautifully -- they just lost the plot on Gaudy Night and I mean that most literally. It completely omitted the stress and terror of the Poison Pen actually driving people to suicide, which I think could have easily been included. The whole thing about women's work and women's power... just absent. And the charms of the world vs. the ivory tower. And Peter's ever so perfect proposal. Lost, lost utterly.

[kalichan]

You have been emailed!